


The Ascension of Ignis Lucis Caelum

by mooglecharm (morphaileffect)



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Backstory, Blind Ignis Scientia, Drama, Family Issues, Family Secrets, Gen, Light Angst, Mentioned Noctis Lucis Caelum, Mentioned Regis Lucis Caelum, Post-Canon, Post-World of Ruin, Recovery, References to Illness, Short, Short One Shot, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26124091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morphaileffect/pseuds/mooglecharm
Summary: “It could only be seen as a benevolent act,” Ignis said. “A king saved an unknown orphan’s life and gave him a family, a home, a name, and a purpose. Erased all his past suffering, everything he might have been.“It was only when I lost my sight that I realized...the king might have wanted to cheat fate. By placing a child with his blood alongside his own child. So that the Crystal might choose him as a sacrifice instead.”
Relationships: Noctis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia, Regis Lucis Caelum & Ignis Scientia
Comments: 12
Kudos: 45





	The Ascension of Ignis Lucis Caelum

**Author's Note:**

> Some hardcore speculation here on Ignis' origins. Also speculates on what happened to the Crystal after the Dawn.

“I’m going to tell you a story.”

Ignis gently broke Prompto’s hold on his arm with these words.

He made his way toward the long stairs leading up to the throne of Lucis. There were already a few onlookers waiting at the top. Some were elderly folk in ceremonial robes.

Ignis’ unhurried footsteps cast lonely echoes through the damaged halls.

“A long time ago - around twenty-six years, or so - a child lay dying in the streets of Insomnia.”

Prompto tried to follow Ignis. But Gladio put out an arm to keep him in place.

Prompto looked to his friend for an explanation. But Gladio kept his watchful eyes on Ignis, didn’t even turn.

“No one knew where he came from, or who his parents were,” Ignis continued. “He was too ill to answer many questions. But his accent said he wasn’t city-born. The doctors believed he was somehow smuggled in...perhaps by refugees from Niflheim.”

He had made his voice a little louder, so it could be heard by the people behind of him, and ahead.

“What he had was a rare disease that puzzled even the esteemed doctors of the Crown City. His own blood was killing him. Only transfusions of blood helped, but his body _chose_ the blood it wanted to take...and the city had precious little blood to spare.”

The tip of his boot encountered the edge of the first step. He began to make his way up the stairs confidently, but with a deliberate, almost reverent slowness.

“In their kindness, the doctors did everything they could to keep him alive. But with no family, no memories, and no hope, they knew that in the end, they would have had to let him die.

“That is, until the king, Regis Lucis Caelum, heard about him and decided to help.”

Mention of the old king unsettled some of the onlookers, who glanced nervously at each other. Prompto and Gladio could tell from where they stood that some of them wished Ignis would not speak. That Ignis would just let this momentous event pass without complications. That it would all just be over with.

“ ‘Give him my blood,’ King Regis told the doctors. It was an unusual request for a king to make, but one does not refuse a king. The doctors did as the king bade, and saw the boy’s condition immediately improve.

“Then they realized: if they took marrow from the king’s bones and placed it into the child, the child might live. The king’s blood would flow through his veins, and drive the illness out.”

Prompto’s eyes widened as the words sank in.

Gladio’s stillness told him this was his first time hearing of it, too.

“So the king said, ‘Take what he needs from me.’ And they did. And the child lived.”

He was halfway up the steps. The onlookers stood motionless now, watching him. And Prompto realized how dreamlike the scene was...

Everything that everyone else did, hinged on Ignis’ every move. Ignis was the subject of this dream - the only one who could decide how it was going to go.

And Ignis kept speaking.

“The king wished to adopt the child. His counselors refused, because the child’s origins were unknown. He might have been a spy planted by the Empire. Inherent flaws in his character might make him a blight on the royal name. His illness might recur, and maybe he couldn’t be saved a second time.

“But the king was adamant. He reached a compromise with his counselors to keep the child. They said: if all the king wanted was the child in his household, he could have one of his royal retainers adopt him. Then he could employ the child as a companion to his son and heir.”

“Iggy - ” Prompto began. But it came out as a whisper, and he found he didn’t know what else to say.

All the same, Ignis stopped climbing the stairs.

Prompto felt as if the people waiting for him at the top, near the throne, held their breaths.

“It could only be seen as a benevolent act,” Ignis said, in a softer voice, which nonetheless carried in the silence. “A king saved an unknown orphan’s life and gave him a family, a home, a name, and a purpose. Erased all his past suffering, everything he might have been.

“It was only when I lost my sight that I realized...the king might have wanted to cheat fate. By placing a child with his blood alongside his own child. So that the Crystal might choose him as a sacrifice instead.”

“King Regis couldn't have done that to you and Noct.” The one who protested was Gladio. Prompto was surprised by how angry he sounded. “You can’t believe that.”

Ignis turned back toward his two friends, who dutifully stood at the foot of the stairs.

He smiled at them.

“I wouldn’t have refused the honor,” he said only to his friends, “of trading my life for Noct's.”

Prompto wanted to say something, like Gladio did. But Ignis’ words were still sinking in.

King Regis had given an orphan child his blood, then taken him in, hoping he could take Noctis’ place on the throne...and then the chopping block?

Was _Ignis_ how King Regis had hoped to save his son’s life?

How much of this was theory, and how much of it was real?

How long had Ignis thought of this - and had Noctis thought of this as well?

“The Ring,” Gladio breathed.

“What...?” Prompto asked him.

“The Ring of the Lucii,” Gladio grimly explained. “It didn’t kill Ignis, or take more than his sight. It let him live, because he had royal blood in his veins. The blood of Lucis.”

A chill ran up Prompto’s spine.

“So it’s...true?” he asked, dreading the answer, which never came.

Ignis turned, and slowly made his way up the stairs again. Since no one else was speaking, he continued his tale:

“The Crystal couldn’t be fooled. The gods had chosen their offering. Nonetheless, the king called it providence; the foundling still had a use. His son gained an advisor and friend. In the end, his son would fall, but he would not fall alone.”

Ignis had reached the top of the stairs. None of the onlookers there dared to approach him, not even to guide him so he could sit on the throne.

But Ignis wasn’t aiming to sit on the throne.

“And the king thought...that nothing would come after the fall.”

Ignis stood before the throne...and the gigantic, dull Crystal above it.

And the Crystal started glowing.

There was an image in the middle of the light - so stark that even Gladio and Prompto could see it from where they stood:

It was an image of Ignis, in the garb of the Lucian king.

The very image that had made the remnants of the Lucian royal court seek him out. The image that brought them so much hope, and dread.

The line of Lucis wasn't dead.

Ignis could not have seen that image. Yet he stood beneath the Crystal with his face turned up to it.

He could sense light, Prompto recalled, remembering the tears that streamed down Ignis’ face when dawn broke again, some months back.

When they all thought it was time to start over, finally without the meddling of the gods.

As if addressing his reflection, Ignis quietly continued:

“Noct’s sacrifice should have put an end to this. He’d fulfilled the prophecy. The Crystal’s power should have returned to Eos. But because King Regis gambled on someone else taking Noct’s place...he might have changed everything.”

He reached out a hand to the Crystal.

The Crystal responded by glowing even brighter.

A tendril of light snaked out from the Crystal, like a ghostly hand reaching back.

And Ignis smiled.

“I will take your curse this time,” he said to the light.

The tendril enveloped Ignis’ outstretched hand.

And when it vanished, shortly after, there was a black ring on his finger.

The ascension was complete. The onlookers fell to their knees.

Gladio and Prompto remained standing, watchful for any magical mishaps that might occur.

Ignis closed his ring-bearing hand into a fist, and drew it close to his chest. Then he turned toward his friends. His smile had turned sorrowful.

“I will make sure it ends with me,” he promised them.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the thought that [bone marrow transplants change DNA](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/dna-bone-marrow-transplant-man-chimera-chris-long-forensic-science-police-a9238636.html). I presume the same happens in marrow donation in a semi-magical setting XD


End file.
